Vic Damone - That Towering Feeling (Expanded Edition) (1956/2018)

Vic Damone's first proper album for Columbia Records is still considered one of his finest efforts. A ballad session with a couple of Sinatra-style swingers thrown in for good measure, Damone's pure vocals float over a bed of subtle strings as jazz solos move in and out (trumpeter Buck Clayton and trombonist Urbie Green are the only musicians to get mentioned in the liner notes). Damone had such a naturally beautiful voice that he's often at his best when he isn't pushing too hard, as attested by his gorgeous interpretations of "The Touch of Your Lips" and "Time on My Hands" heard here. He's also loose and nimble on the upbeat numbers, and "swinging" isn't the first word generally associated with Vic Damone. Still considered one of the best vocal pop albums of the 1950s, That Towering Feeling! was a hit in Great Britain but never really caught fire stateside the way that Damone's singles for the label did. That's a shame, because it really is one of Damone's best, and his three jazz-etched Columbia albums (this one, On the Swingin' Side, and especially This Game of Love) were so much better than his concurrent singles for the label, many of which were overblown and melodramatic. Thankfully, after being a collector's item for years, the album is once again in print and is on compact disc for the first time, including on a number of two-for-one CD reissues which house it with other Damone albums of the same period.